So worried vendor will pull out

7 weeks ago we accepted an offer on our house. 5 weeks ago we had our offer accepted on our (hopeful) new home. Vendor is retirement age and wanting to downsize, and hadn't looked at anything at that point but seemed motivated to move.

Since then there has been little movement. We went for a second viewing 2 weeks ago and he said he'd viewed 4 properties but hadn't found the right one. 4 seemed low to us for 3 weeks but he obviously has a clear idea what he wants. Since then we've heard nothing. DH rang the estate agent on Monday to see if they knew anything and they haven't called back - I'm going to call again tomorrow to follow up.

I'm just so stressed that they will pull out - either because they don't find what they want, or because the surveyor undervalues it (happened to us) and they won't accept less. It feels incredibly risky to pay for a survey when there is no commitment as yet from the other side but our mortgage company are pushing us to move it along. There is also the worry that our buyers who are FTB will get impatient and go elsewhere.

Hard to say. What is the market like around you ? Is the vendor's estate agent helping ?

We had an offer accepted by a retirement age couple in January. We completed at the end of August. We had to sell and move into rented (we'd lost 3 buyers before) but we were only happy to wait as the couple were so genuine, and the estate agent so helpful. The house they eventually bought was going to be their final house, and needed to be future proof and modified for their needs with the profit from their sale. It was actually understandably hard to find, but the agent made it his mission to help them.

We're worried that our vendors may decide not to move - they've put an offer in on a place and lost out to someone else. We're set to complete by the end of May on our house sale and have decided to go into rented temporarily as we've already lost a buyer and now just want to sell ours! Would renting be an option for you? Depends how badly you want to move, and what the thought of not moving means to you.

Do NOT pay for a survey unless you havr a complete chain set up. Why would you? Very much hope this doesn't happen to you, but we had three chains fall apart before we bought a house and several more where the chain never got set up because of so-called downsizers who ended up changing their minds because they couldn't find the holy grail of a lovely detached retirement home near lots of amenities that cost considerably less than the house they were moving from. I would be very pissed off if I had paid out for searches/surveys on those houses too.

Thanks all. As they are downsizing they are looking for something quite specific in a fairly small area which is the problem - there is movement and new properties coming onto the market but because of what they want it is limited so I suppose it is natural that it will take a bit longer. The upside is that the kind of properties they are interested in make it more likely that they will have no upward chain for their purchase (as evidenced by the Right Move stalking we have been doing based on what we think they are looking for!).

Having spoken to the estate agent today I am more reassured. She has spoken to the vendor who advises he is actively looking and is due to view a property tonight - she will update us tomorrow as to whether he decides to offer on it. He asked her to tell us not to worry that there is absolutely no way they will pull out, they are committed to moving. I get the impression they want to free up some equity from their property as they are mortgage free so it's possible that if they have debt or are short of money that this will be a strong motivator.

I know it seems nuts about the survey but it seems that DH in his wisdom just went ahead and booked it because they made it sound like he had to. We've paid for it now so don't think there is much we can do but at least it sounds more positive from the vendor.

Could be worth contacting the surveyors and letting them know you don't want to do the survey just yet, leave it paid for but to be done at a date in the future.

That's what we were told we could have done by the surveyors we'd booked when the chain collapsed, we'd already paid them so but they would have held off even if it meant the survey happening on a different house.

Sadly in our case we weren't able to contact them in time, and the $%^& vendors let them in to do the survey anyway! Fortunately we got through to them before they'd written it up so we did save a few hours work.

Oh I so empathise with you. Our sellers (Scotland) are an elderly couple who have strung us along whilst tire kicking lots of houses. They basically want what they have got but in a different area. I'm totally losing heart but don't really have a plan b at the moment so we are just nurturing them along (and suggesting properties). Luckily we don't have the survey and searches situation up here until the sale is guaranteed.